


wrench in the works

by MusicalLuna



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Get Together, M/M, POV Steve Rogers, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Sneaky Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Worried Jarvis (Iron Man movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-23 22:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17089103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicalLuna/pseuds/MusicalLuna
Summary: Steve hadn't known how to court someone in 1939 and he sure as hell doesn't know how to do it in 2014. He's determined to try though.





	wrench in the works

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Steve hadn't known how to court someone in 1939 and he sure as hell doesn't know how to do it in 2014. He's determined to try though.  
  
He hadn't expected he'd ever want to after Peggy—her death had hollowed him out and made him feel like he'd lost everything all over again. If it hadn't been for her, he might have never really believed he was in the future. But she had been real, a visceral example of how the world had kept turning without him.   
  
Anyway, it had broken something in him, her death.   
  
Tony Stark had been the one to revive him.   
  
For all his seeming carelessness, it had been Tony there every step of the way, reaching out when Steve couldn't find a reason to keep going.   
  
It wasn't that there weren't others and he never could have made it without Natasha and Sam, but it was Tony who gave him the first glimpse of life beyond his grief. He'd been sitting with Steve one night a few months after Peggy passed, not doing anything particular, just sitting while Steve morosely made his way through a box of doughnuts, eyes still wet and burning.   
  
Tony had brought him a cold soda can to press against them. “Learned this trick in college from Rhodey,” he told Steve. “Granted, it was a hangover treatment when he taught it to me.”   
  
Steve let out a startled, congested laugh. “Weren't you  fourteen in college?”   
  
“Fifteen at the time, actually,” Tony retorted loftily. “What, are you telling me you didn't get drunk as a teenager?”   
  
Steve had wound up smiling despite his swollen face. “First time I was thirteen.”   
  
Tony's face had lit up with delight and sparked something inside Steve. It had been small and overshadowed by everything else at the time, but since then it's grown and grown and grown.   
  
Almost a year to the day, Tony showed up in Steve's quarters with a bottle of alcohol, a stack of movies, and another box of doughnuts and it had struck Steve: whatever it was he'd felt for Peggy, he had it just as bad for Tony now. It didn't make him miss her any less or even make him stop thinking about what could have been, but it made the future sprawled out ahead of him seem less daunting.   
  
Since then it's been nearly seven months, and Steve knows his feelings for Tony aren't going anywhere. It makes Steve happy when Tony smiles and sad when Tony's upset and he's decided he's not about to lose out on this the way he did with Peggy. 'Soon' may never come.   
  
So even though he's never had the faintest clue how to woo somebody, he's going to try.   
  
He decides to start by asking Tony to dinner. Because the other Avengers are always around, and he doesn't particularly want to sit through Clint taking the mickey out of him, Steve decides to ask via video message. That way he can practice until he gets it right and send it off to Tony and he doesn't have to worry about the others overhearing since Tony will probably open it in his workshop.   
  
He spends an entire afternoon shut away in his bedroom working on the recording. After the third attempt, JARVIS says, “Captain, is this video intended for Mister Stark?”   
  
Steve knows it's wrong, but he glances up at the ceiling. “Yeah, it's for Tony.”   
  
There's a brief pause, and then JARVIS says, “Oh, dear. I'm afraid the recording isn't working. I'll have to run diagnostics.”   
  
“Oh,” Steve says, “okay. Will you let me know when it's fixed?”   
  
“Certainly, Captain.”   
  
When three hours pass and JARVIS still hasn't given him the all-clear, Steve decides he'll have to take a different approach.   
  
–   
  
Steve goes down to the workshop a few hours later with hot cocoa and candied pecans.   
  
It's hit or miss whether or not he'll be able to get in—Tony doesn't keep a schedule for when the workshop is open to visitors—but today turns out to be Steve's lucky day.   
  
The elevator door opens, and Steve smiles reflexively at the sight of Tony surrounded by glowing blue wireframes. He looks like a wizard like this, bathed in light and manipulating the very air.   
  
“Tony,” he calls, a warning and a greeting.   
  
Tony looks back over his shoulder and breaks into a smile that makes Steve's heart throb a little harder. “Hey, Capsicle. To what do I owe the honor?”   
  
Steve lifts the tray holding the food.   
  
Tony's smile broadens, his eyes crinkling into glinting half moons and Steve falls a little bit more in love with him. “Wow, first-rate service around here.”   
  
Steve moves over to him, sliding the tray onto the bench. “I figured you might like an afternoon snack.”   
  
“What've we got?”   
  
“Cocoa, candied pecans. Nat and I made them.”   
  
Tony puts a hand over the arc reactor. “A man after my own heart.”   
  
It's terrible how that sends Steve's heart fluttering. Tony might just be receptive after all. All he has to do is ask. He watches as Tony takes a sip of the cocoa and swallows thickly as Tony pulls the cup away from his lips, foam and melted marshmallow clinging to his mustache.   
  
“Hey,” he blurts. “Tony. I was wondering—”   
  
“Sir, I'm afraid you're needed in Lab 2B.”   
  
Tony sets down the mug with a clank on the workbench. “Oh, hell. What did they do? I'm on my way.” He starts to run off then pulls back, gripping Steve's wrist. “Hey—thanks, Steve. Sorry—”   
  
Steve smiles ruefully. “It's only hot chocolate, Tony.”   
  
“Rain check,” Tony says firmly, and Steve nods. Then Tony's off again.   
  
Steve sighs and looks down at the partially drunk cocoa with a small huff of laughter. Well, he's oh-for-two.   
  
–   
  
Next, he calls Tony's phone. It goes to voicemail, which isn't that surprising since Tony's supposed to be working.   
  
“Hi, Tony,” he starts, and then his nerves get the better of him, and he pauses for far too long. “Sorry,” he says, feeling himself flushing. This should be easier without the camera and without Tony actually here. “I just wanted to ask… Can I take you to dinner? Somewhere just the two of us. I like to think we know each other pretty well by now, but I'd like to find out if we fit together more closely, if you know what I mean.” The audacity and ridiculousness of that get his face burning hot. He coughs. “Anyway. If you want. Let me know.”   
  
There. That's done.   
  
Now all he has to do is wait. With the nerves suddenly rattling around under his skin, Steve goes to find some way to occupy himself.   
  
–   
  
Tony wanders into the kitchen after nine that night, pulling his tie loose with a sigh. Steve watches him go to the fridge, heart beating hard in his throat. Tony pulls a pre-made smoothie out and then turns around and smiles tiredly at Steve. “Hey, there. How was the rest of your day?”   
  
“Fine,” Steve croaks. “Things go okay at work?”   
  
“Everything was fine. I'm not sure why I got the red alert. Got sucked in though, I'm wiped.”   
  
Steve can't help himself and the question bursts out of him. “Did you get my message?”   
  
Tony frowns, just a tiny one and pulls out his phone. “Did you leave me one? I didn't see… JARVIS, did I miss something?”   
  
“No, sir,” JARVIS says, and that's when Steve starts to get suspicious.   
  
“What was the message for?” Tony asks.   
  
After a brief moment of thought, Steve says, “Oh, nothing much. Just saying hi.”   
  
Tony smiles, a kind of soft silly thing that makes Steve's stomach feel warm. “Okay, then. Hi. I'll check into the missing message thing, that's weird.” He frowns down at his phone again and then breaks into a jaw-cracking yawn.   
  
Steve smiles. “Maybe you ought to go to bed.”   
  
“Yeah,” Tony agrees around another yawn. He waves a couple fingers around the phone. “Night night, Cap.”   
  
“Night, Tony.”   
  
When he's had enough time to get far enough down the hall, Steve taps his knuckles on the countertop and says, casual, “JARVIS, did you stop Tony from getting my message?”   
  
There's a long silence that speaks volumes.   
  
“You made up the emergency in the lab, didn't you? And the problems with the video?”   
  
An even heavier silence.   
  
Steve huffs, exasperated. “JARVIS, all I want to do is take him on a date.”   
  
“Sir is easily hurt,” JARVIS says and then goes conspicuously silent again as though he didn't intend to.   
  
“You're protecting him,” Steve says, softening a little at the thought, even if JARVIS is protecting Tony from him.   
  
“That is my prime directive,” JARVIS replies stiffly.   
  
“I know.” Steve holds up his hands. “I know people have been rough on Tony and he needs someone like you looking out for him.”   
  
“Exactly,” JARVIS says.   
  
“I want to protect him, too,” Steve goes on. He draws a little figure eight on the countertop with his fork. “Tony means a lot to me JARVIS. He gave me a home when I thought I'd never have one again. I would never do anything to hurt him.”   
  
“Perhaps not on purpose.”   
  
Steve sighs. “No, you're right. I'm bound to hurt him at some point even without meaning to. But I'll do everything I can to make it up to him. And I will never hurt him the way other people have. If I ever do, I want you to do whatever you can to get rid of me. Blast me out the windows, I don't care. I'll deserve it.”   
  
JARVIS is quiet for a long moment. Finally, after what feels like an eon, he says quietly, “Sir smiles most when he is with you.”   
  
That makes Steve's stomach do a somersault. He looks down at the fork. “I want that to happen more. As often as I can make it happen, if you'll let me.”   
  
JARVIS seems to sigh. “I will not stop you.”   
  
Steve smiles and shakes his head. Some future he's ended up in, getting permission from the AI of the fella he's sweet on. “Thanks, JARVIS. I...don't really know what I'm doing here, so go easy on me, okay?”

“If you keep your promise,” JARVIS agrees archly, and Steve laughs.   
  
“That's fair. Now, since you ruined all my other attempts, you wanna help me ask him in just the right way?”   
  
He feels like he can hear JARVIS smiling when he says, “I suppose that's only fair.”

– 

Steve is working his nervous energy out on the heavy bag the next afternoon when a screen pops up to his left. He immediately drops his fists, watching intensely as, on screen, Tony watches the new video Steve had made--this time with JARVIS’ help.

Tony looks amused to begin with then fond, then _surprised_ , and finally, as Steve stutters out his request to take Tony to dinner, the sweetest, most elated smile spreads across Tony’s face, lighting it up like the sun. Steve reaches out automatically to touch the image of Tony’s face, to touch that _smile_.

Then Tony looks directly at the camera--at _Steve_ \--and says, “I’m free tonight.”

Steve lets his own grin bloom across his face. “Tonight it is.”

 


End file.
